Fiorina Attempts To Clear The Air On HP's Adaptive Enterprise Initiative

She may not have completely cleared the air on the issue, but she did detail how the initiative launched last May is a response to what she's been hearing from customers and she highlighted how important HP's business partners are to the effort.

The Adaptive Enterprise is both an end goal and an approach to business IT systems, Fiorina said. "A way to think about the Adaptive Enterprise is as a way of approaching what you have to do to make your technology more effective, more responsive, more innovative," she said.

Business goals and IT goals must be linked within organizations, she said, because "we believe adaptability is a key competitive advantage going forward. Companies that can embrace change and adapt to changing conditions are more successful than companies that cannot."

Fiorina said the days are long gone when customers would shell out millions of dollars for custom-built systems that force them to change the way they do business. "Fundamentally, what we're focused on with the Adaptive Enterprise is not going in and telling a customer how to run their business. What we are doing is helping a customer build an enterprise that enables them to achieve their business objectives more efficiently."

She said business partners were key to HP's success with its new initiative.

"The Adaptive Enterprise is not about us becoming a high-priced consultant," she said, adding that she could have bought consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers for a half a billion dollars less than IBM paid for the firm. "I said 'No' to them eight times."

Some of HP partners provide the company with important customer relationships, she said, while others have expertise in specific vertical industries. "Partnering is part of our strategy. ... We focus on innovation where we believe we can make a unique contribution, and we partner for the rest of it.

"We think that we are putting together a group of partners which together can offer a set of capabilities that are unmatched by anyone else. We don't do it all, but we think we do a lot to anchor those partners."

She said that "a big piece" of what the Adaptive Enterprise represents is more than the products and services that HP brings to the table to address customers' problems, "but it's also a way of bringing together the contributions of our partners so that our customers understand here is how we play together. And, yeah, I think we do bring partners together in a way that's unique in this industry."